MediaWorks Bolsters Programming, Management Teams

AUCKLAND: New Zealand’s MediaWorks has made one appointment and two promotions for its programming and management teams, including hiring David Hine as the new general manager of 3NOW.

Hine will officially become general manager of 3NOW on September 7. In his newly created role, he will oversee the 3NOW VOD service, including its future strategy and development. Hine has more than 20 years of experience working in sales and marketing management. He most recently served as head of sales and marketing at Lightbox. Earlier in his career, he was sales and marketing director and country manager for Sony Computer Entertainment NZ.

“David brings a wealth of experience in the video-on-demand and technology markets to MediaWorks, and we couldn’t be happier to have him join the team in this new role,” said Glen Kyne, MediaWorks’s acting chief commercial officer. “3NOW has gone from strength to strength in the last year, and this appointment is another part of our ongoing development to have New Zealand’s best VOD platform and be New Zealand’s largest provider of premium video content. We know David, with his expertise in strategic development and digital products, is the perfect person to get us there.”

MediaWorks TV has also elevated Ben Quinn to head of acquisitions for TV and digital, and Matt Barthow to channel manager for TV3. Quinn will have direct responsibility for international content acquisition across MediaWorks’s television and digital services, while Barthow will handle the day-to-day management of TV3’s schedule, with oversight of the scheduling staff.

Quinn has been with MediaWorks for 15 years in a number of programming roles, including most recently associate director of programming and network programming manager of TV3 and FOUR. Barthow has held programming and scheduling roles at MediaWorks for nine years, including network programming manager of TV3 and FOUR, and program scheduler for TV3 and FOUR.

Mark Caulton, MediaWorks TV’s director of programming, noted: “I’m delighted to make these key appointments from within MediaWorks. Both highly respected members of the MediaWorks content team, Ben and Matt are passionate about our business and bring talent and experience to their respective roles.”